Disney CEO Bob Iger said the abysmal box office figures for "The Marvels" were a result of COVID.
The Walt Disney Company spent $274.8 million to make "The Marvels," but then received a $55 million subsidy from the government of the United Kingdom, according to Forbes.
However, "The Marvels" has been an absolute box office bust.
Variety reported on Sunday that "The Marvels" is "officially the lowest-grossing installment in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe."
Since its release date on Nov. 10, "The Marvels" has made an extremely disappointing $80 million in North America and $197 million globally.
Disney appeared to wave the white flag in its statement released on Sunday, "With ‘The Marvels’ box office now winding down, we will stop weekend reporting of international/global grosses on this title."
Bob Iger gave his reasons why he believed that "The Marvels" was a disaster at the box office during an appearance at The New York Times Dealbook Summit last week.
"'The Marvels' was shot during COVID," Iger began. "There wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what’s being done day after day after day."
Iger also blamed streaming services for Disney movies flopping at the box office.
“The experience of accessing [the films] and watching them in the home is better than it ever was,” he said. “And [it’s] a bargain when you think about it. Streaming Disney+ you can get for $7 a month. That’s a lot cheaper than taking your whole family to a film. So, I think the bar is now raised in terms of quality about what gets people out of their homes, into movie theaters.”
Iger also addressed a major gripe that comic book fans have – making sequels just for the sake of making a safe sequel.
“I don’t want to apologize for making sequels,” Iger prefaced. “Some of them have done extraordinarily well, and they’ve been good films, too."
The Disney CEO specified, "I think there has to be a reason to make them. You have to have a good story. And often the story doesn’t hold up to — is not as strong as the original story. That can be a problem.”
Iger continued, "We’re making a number of them now right, as a matter of fact. But we will only greenlight a sequel if we believe the story that the creators want to tell is worth telling.”
"Quality needs attention to deliver quality; it doesn't happen by accident," Iger confessed. "Quantity, in our case, diluted quality, and Marvel has suffered greatly from that."
However, the Walt Disney Company admitted last month that wokeness and culture wars have had significnt impacts across the board on the multinational entertainment and media conglomerate.
As Blaze News previously reported, Disney warned investors that the company's wokeness presents risks to its "reputation and brands" in its annual financial report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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The Walt Disney Company marked its 100th anniversary with yet another box office bomb. "Wish," which reportedly cost between $175 million and $200 million to produce, drew a paltry $19.5 million domestically over the weekend.
Box office analysts figured the film would bring in at least $45 million in its first five days, but it failed to crack $32 million, reported CNBC.
By way of contrast, "Frozen 2" brought in over $125 million over the same five-day period in 2019.
As of Monday, "Wish" had earned a worldwide total of $48.9 million.
The animated picture's abysmal opening week bookends a year of similar flops, including "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," "The Little Mermaid" remake, "The Marvels," and "Haunted Mansion."
While continuing the trend of ostensibly cursed releases, "Wish" nevertheless managed to outperform Disney's last November flop, "Strange World" — a work of climate alarmist agitprop featuring the studio's first openly gay on-screen teen. "Strange World," which only brought in $11.9 million over a post-pandemic Thanksgiving weekend, reportedly amounted to a loss for Disney of $197.4 million.
"Wish" will, however, still register as one of Disney's worst opening weekends in modern times.
Not only is "Wish" ostensibly a costly mistake but widely disliked.
The film ranks 64th out Disney's 73 animated theatrical movies according to Rotten Tomatoes, whereon "Wish" presently has a 49% rating.
Kevin Maher of the Times (U.K.) wrote, "Just like The Marvels, Wish is an emotionally inert and personality-free movie that appears to have been assembled from the outside in."
Maher appears to have been referencing "Wish" director Jennifer Lee's June suggestion to the Guardian that "[w]hen you manage characters from outside in, they don't resonate. And if it's not authentic, no one comes."
Wendy Ide of the Observer called the film a "grimly cynical marketing exercise wrapped in the sparkly cloak of an escapist animated fairytale."
Although critics have suggested the film is devoid of personality, sincerity and emotional stimuli, Deadline suggested the film's under-performance is actually the result of a poorly conceived trailer that failed to provide a clear sense of what the film was about, promising only another "plug-and-play princess movie" with an unclear narrative hook.
Blaze News previously reported that ahead of the film's release, the Walt Disney Company filed its annual financial report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, detailing both its woke bona fides and the price it has paid for its involvement in culture wars.
"We face risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel and consumer products, which impact demand for our entertainment offerings and products and the profitability of any of our business," said the SEC filing. "Our businesses create entertainment, travel and consumer products whose success depends substantially on consumer tastes and preferences that change in often unpredictable ways."
The company indicated that this "misalignment" with customers has impacted its various products and services as well as its reputation.
CEO Bob Iger told investors in September that Disney would work to "quiet the noise" in the culture war, reported the New York Post. However, it appears the damage already done may be irreversible. After all, the company has both made its activist position on various sensitive issues extremely clear in recent years and demonstrated its contempt for the democratic will of the American people, throwing around its weight in hopes of undoing legislative efforts to protect children and shore up parental rights.
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Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" is a box office hit.
The film depicts J. Robert Oppenheimer’s internal struggles with creating the atomic bomb. While he knew its creation could bring about the end of World War II, he also knew it could bring about the destruction of the world.
However, what the film doesn’t do is what Glenn Beck just did: bring to life what really happened during the atomic bomb attacks.
Glenn reads an original letter — which he just acquired for his museum — penned by the copilot of the Enola Gay to his parents.
“We are loaded. The bomb is now alive. It’s a disturbing and funny feeling, knowing it’s right in back of you,” he writes.
“There in front of our eyes was it,” the letter continues, “without a doubt, the greatest explosion man has ever witnessed.”
“I am certain the entire crew felt this experience was more than any human had ever thought possible. It just seems impossible to comprehend. Just how many did we kill?” the copilot added.
The letter isn’t all Glenn has in his possession.
“Because Oppenheimer saw what could be done,” Glenn explains, “and all of the scientists involved knew the destructive power, they made Truman a deal. You can only drop this if you warn the people.”
Glenn has also acquired leaflets that the U.S. distributed to the Japanese people who were in danger from the atomic bomb.
“They say you’re not our enemies, we’re picking these ten cities, and in the next ten days we will drop a bomb of more destructive power than is imaginable,” Glenn says.
According to Glenn, 70 million of these leaflets were dropped.
“Nobody had ever done that ever, in the history of the world.”
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
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The first chapter of Kevin Costner's new Western epic has a lot more to offer than its critical and financial woes suggest.
The movie's success reflects how the West has entered an era of neopaganism and Christianity has been replaced with incoherent philosophies.
March was a good month at the box office, where movies like 'Godzilla' and 'Dune: Part Two' upstaged more recent financial failures.
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